Photography-forum is dedicated to those who have passion, desire and love of photography and want to improve their photographic technique. It doesn't matter what you photograph, landscapes, weddings, portraits or your photographic experience, it's about learning and loving what we do. Photography!

If you want learn and expand your photography skills then there is one place to do it Photography Forum !!!

You are viewing photography-forum as a guest which gives you limited access to view most forums and enjoy other features. By joining our free community you will be able to post photographs for critique, join in the monthly photography competitions, respond to polls, upload content and enjoy many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please join Photography Forum.

Ok, as said above some always leave them on .... others never use them .... the choice is yours
Benefit ..... .protects the lens glass and sometimes cuts down on glare.
Detriment .... can reduce picture quality (depending on cost/quality of filter)

I used to shoot film (where they make a difference), so started off with UV filters on my lenses.
Having heard of a few cases where broken filters ruined lenses that would have survived fine without a filter, I now I only fit a filter when I need one.
It's very rare for a UV filter to be any use, but sometimes they hold a homemade Bokeh mask in place

It's not been mentioned in this thread so I'll point out that unlike film digital cameras have very little response to UV. They have an internal filter that blocks UV very successfully.

Keeping the lens hood on is always a good idea, even so I use a protective filter (UV or clear) on all my lenses all the time.

Dropping any lens from any height that will break the protective filter will likely damage the alignment of the lens elements and/or lens groups. For that reason I do it less to protect the lens from damage due to dropping than from damage by handling. Protective filters protect the lens from rain and splashes (making it more water resistant), from salt spray or that nasty combination of salt spray and sand at the beach, eliminates fingerprints from the front lens element, makes it easier to clean the lens, and reduces the risk of scratching the front lens element while carrying or working with the camera.

Using an inferior filter will reduce contrast, increase flair, and reduce image quality. Using high quality filters will theoretically reduce image quality but this has never been proven or documented.

I am pleased to hear that your camera's lens allows filters [not every superzoom does this] and that it is of 55mm diameter [same as mine]

Whether or not you continue with the UV filter, this option opens the door to several exciting possibilities for you ... just as though you had a dSLR lens as well. These options are a) a polarising filter, and b) a close-up lens

The Pola filter's job is to darken skies and remove reflections from glass & water [but not metal]. The filter is made from 2 pieces -- the glass bit and the mount. You put the filter onto the camera's lens, then rotate the glass bit in its mount to set the pola filter to its maximum effectiveness - and you will see it change as you look thru the viewfinder

With closeups - most cameras when the 'little flower' for closeups is activated, force the lens into 1x to 3x zoom -or- as the zoom is used for a bigger image, the closest focus distance increases as well, making it hard to get bees & other insects or inside flowers etc.

The Closeup Lens is a special lens for us, as it takes over focussing from the camera - all closeup lenses have their own focus distance and the one I suggest for you is called a "Canon 250D" lens which focuses at 1/4-metre / 10 inches. The magic of these lenses is that the zoom is not interrupted - you still have full zoom from that 1/4-metre away from the subject ... and with your camera's beaut zoom, you will be able to get some very small stuff quite sharp in the frame

Each of the 2 above will cost you about 75 pounds
Hope this helps
Phil from the great land Downunder

I find polarisers do much more than just the obvious reducing reflections. Even in that role they reduce reflections from leaves etc boosting the saturation of many parts of the scene.
On occasion rotating them 90 degrees to boost reflections can be very effective.
With a second (linear) polariser they can be used to make a variable ND control (not good for wide angle lenses) or even to view the stress patterns in plastics by having the subject between crossed polarisers:stressed stencil by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr
(That shot was using an LCD screen to provide polarised light)

Yes all good mate - we do this type of photography during our Adult-Ed photo workshops ... good fun for weekender's. However in my earlier suggestion for the O.P I didn't want to deviate too far from the everyday